


Doctor Who: The Owner of a Lonely Jhart

by elfsternberg



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Bad Puns, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-06 05:39:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12204978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfsternberg/pseuds/elfsternberg
Summary: The Doctor and Sarah find a single survivor of a species that usually lives in symbiotic pairings.





	Doctor Who: The Owner of a Lonely Jhart

"I don't think anyone's here, Doctor," Sarah said as they walked along the white, curving corridor. Along one wall and beyond thick windows a planet, a grey-green, mottled, and cloud-covered thing, rotated patiently.

"Odd, that," the Doctor said, his eyes open in that way Sarah had long ago learned meant his mind was elsewhere, thinking elsethings. She wanted him to tell her more, but knew better than most that pressing him for answers would only lead to more mysteries. "Almost reminds me of the Ark. Remember the Ark?"

"I remember the Wirrin," Sarah said, and grew cold about the shoulders. "Nasty creatures. You don't suppose there are any here, do you?"

"Oh, seems unlikely. The Wirrin are a parasitic species, but they have to find your space station first, and on the scale of the universe a space station is a very, very tiny thing indeed. And this one is more tiny than most." He knocked on a wall gently. "I don't think this is a station so much as it is a spaceship. The only question is, why is it so cold?" He reared his head back and shouted, "Hello! Is anyone home?"

Nothing answered his call. "There, see? As quiet as interstellar space."

They walked further until they came to a door with a small, metal panel inset on the wall next to it. The markings weren't in a language Sarah could read, but the Doctor said, "Cryogenics. Well, more and more like The Ark all the time." He touched a stud on the panel and the door opened.

"Doctor?" Sarah said as they walked in. About two dozen long, green cords all led to a two-meter-wide round table in the middle of the room. Sarah approached the table, taking care not to step on a cord, and saw that it was not a table, but a low cylinder. She leaned in and saw a massive, orange shape through the frosted glass, corded muscles all leading to a helmeted... head, she guessed. The doctor, taking just as much care as Sarah not to step on a green cord, leaned over and said, "Oh my. A Jhart!"

"A what?"

"A Jhart, Sarah. A highly evolved sort. Outside of that cryo chamber, you might think he looks a bit like an octopus. Self-engineered for low-gravity, high-humidity, high-oxygen environments." He grinned. "Such as those found on a spaceship. Literate, witty, fantastic guests at parties." He frowned. "But where's the other one? The Jhart usually come in twos."

"Twos?"

"The Jhart's great evolutionary breakthrough was due to their ability to telepathically communicate through their arms. The Jhart come in pairs, Sarah, a dreamer and an executive. The dreamer holds the couple's ambitions and goals, while the executive makes sure the dreamer remembers to eat. One can survive without the other, of course, but not very happily. And what is it doing all the way out _here_? Their homeworld is far on the other side of your galaxy."

Sarah felt something touch her thigh. It felt cold and... slimy? She shrieked and jumped aside. One of the cords had been trying to climb her leg. "Doctor! It... it moved!"

"Oh, my," said the Doctor. "I should have remembered. The Jhart are capable of slow self-engineering on an individual scale. It must be very lonely, to be crafting sensory tendrils out of this dry environment. It's mind so slowed that months feel like seconds. And slowed as it is at such low temperatures, the tendril has to move even to register something as fundamental as heat. Poor fellow, to be such a very lonely Jhart."

"Doctor, you're not saying?"

"Of course I am, Sarah. Of course I am. Absence makes the Jhart grow fondlers."

**Author's Note:**

> You were warned!


End file.
